University apologises for Holocaust thesis

By REBECCA WALSH education reporter

Canterbury University has apologised for accepting a seriously flawed thesis which claimed parts of the Holocaust never happened. But it says it is powerless to revoke the degree.

Joel Hayward's 360-page master's thesis in 1993 alleged there was never an official Nazi policy to exterminate the Jews in gas chambers and questioned whether 6 million Jews were killed.

An inquiry into the thesis, entitled The Fate of Jews in German Hands, has criticised its "perverse and unjustified conclusion," but said that it had not been proved Dr Hayward had acted dishonestly and that legally the university could not strip him of his degree.

The decision has bitterly disappointed the Jewish Council, which had asked the university to withdraw the degree. It believes Holocaust deniers, who have posted the work on their websites, will welcome it as a victory.

Dr Hayward, now a senior lecturer in defence and strategic studies at Massey University, could not be reached for comment.

His thesis, written when he was in his late 20s, attracted worldwide attention. But in a statement to the New Zealand Jewish Chronicle in February, Dr Hayward said that in 1991 and 1992 he had been inexperienced as a historian and knew relatively little about the Holocaust.

"My thesis represents a sincere attempt on my part to make sense of events I wanted to understand better. Yet I now regret being so uncritical of people's motives and working on such a complex topic without sufficient knowledge and preparation," he said.

The thesis was supervised by Dr Vincent Orange, a lecturer in the university's history department, and externally marked by Professor John Jensen, formerly of Waikato University. It was given an A+ grade.

Dr Hayward has since recanted his conclusions and last year asked the university to withdraw the thesis from its library. It refused but let him write an addendum.

Yesterday, Canterbury University vice-chancellor Daryl Le Grew unreservedly apologised to the Jewish community.

"The University of Canterbury does not support Holocaust revisionism and does not harbour anti-Semetic feeling."

Professor Le Grew said the thesis should not have been accepted without far more scrutiny.

The inquiry working party, headed by retired judge Sir Ian Barker, found the thesis did not deserve a high honours mark and should have been revised and resubmitted.

It criticised systems deficiencies at the university and recommended firm guidelines for future masters theses, including the appointment of qualified and appropriate supervisors.